Darkness Falls
by Raiyne of Gailin
Summary: I have dedicated this story to all us Zelda fans out there that so delight in torturing poor Link. But I'm not telling you what it's about. Find out for yourself!!!
1. The Boy Who Lived

I'm bored, it's past midnight, and I have this irritating urge to torture Linkie all the time. Therefore, both fatigue and insanity have driven me to write this chapter, and if I actually do get any reviews from anyone, I might actually find time to be bored again!!!  
  
Disclaimer: Duh, I don't own Zelda, or anything else the genius Miyamoto does. I'm just an idiot sitting in my living room typing Zelda stories!!! AAARGH!  
  
*******  
  
Chapter 1: The Boy Who Lived  
  
The staleness of rotting flesh tortured his senses. The darkness looming above his head, the moon's reflection in the mists that covered the damp, soggy ground; all too easily placed at the a graveyard, which had been constructed the split second a blinding flash erupted and left thousands of soldiers dead.  
Why am I not dead? the young soldier wondered. His stomache churned at the smell of his surroundings, and he tightened his throat to choke the sickness that tried to overcome him. Eyes still partially blinded from the flash, he remain sprawled out on the ground, clutching his stomach in agony. Because of a shortage in armor, he was one of few soldiers who wore a simple tunic, his only protection a shield, which was now in pieces ten feet away. His head floated, and the pain around his left ear slowly faded to numbness. Groaning, he drew a leg toward himself in an effort to rise from the pile of corpses, but ceased all motion as a result of the sharp pain in his side that followed. Clenching it, he realized that his side was very warm, and very wet. Blood, he assumed.  
After a long, painful inhale, the young adult gathered his courage and brought himself to his knees and elbows, very slowly. Pain ripped through his body, but he urged himself onward, just as he had always done. Head throbbing, stomach weak, and legs almost giving way, he forced himself to his feet several times until he was able to contain his balance. His vision was a dark blur. Straining his eyes to make out his surroundings, the boy limped away from the battlefield, unsure of what direction he traveled in. A mile and a half away, leaving a trail of thick blood behind him, the soldier lost all senses and grasped the ground almost welcomingly.  
  
***  
  
Low sounds emanated from all around him, much like the call of the redeads. However, these deep noises quickly turned to a murmur of speech, finally ending in the sweet sound of a female's voice.  
"Is he going to be alright?" Her voice seemed so familiar.  
"The wound in his side can be repaired, as can the broken ribs and arm," a man's voice answered. "However, the gash in his head worries me, so keep an eye out for signs of concussion." This voice seemed deeper, yet very friendly.  
"Yes, surgeon. I won't leave his side." A hand placed itself gently on the boy's chest. He tried violently to open his eyes, to move, to do anything, but felt as though his entire body had gone limp. Noticing his quickening heart beat, the girl spoke as gently as her touch. "Are you awake?" No answer. She placed her hand around his. "Squeeze my hand if you are." He must have squeezed her hand, as she giggled a short moment later; however, he could feel nothing. "Oh, good! The doctor says you will recover well. But please try to stay awake." She stroked his hair. Nearly an hour had passed, and the boy's senses had begun to return, beginning with a groan.  
"Whrmuh."  
"What?" she asked, unable to make out the words.  
"Wherumuh." The girl slid closer to him, her ear nearly touching his lips. "Where am I?" she could barely make out.  
"Oh, I'm sorry. You are at the royal medicinary, Hyrule Castle. I'm Zelda." A pause.  
"Why can't I see?" he asked, this time his speech becoming more clear.  
"There are bandages on your forehead, silly. Can't you feel them?"  
"No." Zelda slowly unwrapped the bandages from his eyes, light becoming almost excruciating for his blurred vision.  
"When we found you, your eyes were heavily swollen. But they look a bit better now." She looked at the window and thought a moment. "What happened out there? How did you manage to drag yourself from it?"  
"Zelda!" a woman's voice screeched. Neither the boy nor Zelda had heard her entry. "Stop nagging the boy! He's had quite enough trauma, he doesn't need to relive it!"  
"Yes, Impa. I don't know what went over me." Again a silence.  
"Who is he?" the older woman asked. He felt tiny prickles in his back, hopefully a sign of feeling returning to him.  
"I don't know, we just found him on our sweep of the battlefield. No one else survived."  
"Survived?"  
"Yes, some explosion. It was assumed to be a magical attack made by something very powerful." Her voice became graver.  
"I really wish you wouldn't go out there. It doesn't suit a princess." In one moment, all the feeling came back to the boy's body. He realized where he was, and who was sitting beside him. His body jumped at it's regained sense of touch, reminding him of the pain in his side and head. This made the other two women jump as well.  
"Are you alright, boy?" asked the elder woman, some concern in her voice. He quickly sat up to face Zelda. He strained his eyelids to open, and very, very slowly, the cracked to let in all the light around him. Finally, after blinking obsessively, he was able to see a blurred figure before him.  
"Princess Zelda?" he squeezed out, breathing almost becoming a chore for him.  
"Yes."  
"Don't you remember me?" In response to a silence from the girl, he reached for a pocket that did not exist in the pants he wore. "My clothes! Where are they?"  
"They were almost in shreds, so I had them thrown out." She quickly continued after a short gasp from the boy. "But there is a sack of items retrieved from them!" She ran to a table across the room, then returned with a brown satchel prepared by the surgeon's nurse. The soldier grabbed it from her hold and began to dig through it feverishly, finally pulling out a dirty, worn ocarina. It's once shimmering blue sheen was now almost entire covered with years of tarnish. Zelda gasped at first sight with it, then remained transfixed to the boy in front of her.  
"Link!?" 


	2. Chapter 2

Well, I don't know how many of you poor folks read the first chappy, as I only got one review. So I guess that means not many. So I'm adding a new chappy. So read and REVIEW please.  
  
Disclaimer: Duh, I don't own Zelda, or anything related to it. Get a life if you don't believe me!!!  
  
***  
  
Pain shot through his left ear, his head throbbing and eyes burning at the slightest movement. He felt over his chest: He still wore his own tunic. The boy squinted to view his surroundings, but his vision was still blurry from the intense flash of light some time earlier. He could, however, make out a small wooden room, in which he lay on a tiny bed across from a rickety table. Finally, after a few confusing minutes, a fuzzy figure approached him. "You alright?" It was a young woman's voice. Link moaned a bit as he tried to clear his vision.  
"Zelda?" His heart sank as feverish laughter bellowed from the girl before him.  
"I'm no princess, silly!" She turned around to face the door she had come through. "Hey, pop, he's awake!" A large brute of a man wandered in, scraggly and quite intimidating at sight.  
"Good. Aroua, go fetch 'im some o' that brew." His voice could make a lion quiver. "Now, what're yuh doin' in a part like this?"  
"I don't know, sir," the boy managed to say through a gutting pain in his ear.  
"Yuh know, yuh were quite er bit beaten up when I found yuh. Any idear how yuh got like 'at?" His brawny arms were crossed over his chest, eyebrow raised in waiting. The boy cleared his throat.  
"All I remember is a battle, and a bright flash. Next thing I knew, everyone else was dead, I passed out, and now I'm here." The large man's eyebrows furrowed, his arms seeming almost tighter.  
"Well, 'at's not what the fellers in the next room say." He looked up at the boarded ceiling. "Say they saw the whole story, them. Been sayin' yuh were all sprawled out in the gutter, 'at is after yuh got inter a fight with some punks in the nearby pub." He eyed the boy accusingly. The boy stared in shock, unbelieving of what he had just heard. "Is 'at true?"  
"No, sir! It can't be! I remember what the field was like. I know I was there!" He jumped from the bed and ran to the doorway, catching the doorknob just before he fell over.  
"Come now, yuh've no strength in yuh. Come an' sit." Ignoring the man's advice, the boy struggled into what seemed to be a large common room. It was the small foyer of the inn of Hyrule Castle Town Market.  
"Hey, look! It's the kid Joh and Farley beat up over a swig!" The boy's attention swiftly turned to three men sitting around a table, all of them half-drunk.  
"Yeah, the poor kid had no chance!" another shouted before falling backwards in his chair. The young girl from before was nearly knocked down as he fell, barely dodging on her way to the boy's side.  
"Don't listen to them, master Link, come back into the bedroom and lie down." Her voice sounded sweet. The boy did return to the room, but only sat in a chair at the small table. "Her, sir, drink this. It will help with the pain." The broth tasted somewhat bitter, but had a nice kick to it. Perhaps from half-numbness, or from shear hunger, the young man devoured the mixture. Finally he finished, set the small bowl down, and turned to the girl.  
"How do you know my name?" he asked.  
"Your name, sir?" she giggled. "Every girl in Hyrule knows your name! You're the one who saved Termina some time back, and then Gailin, then Pochario Village, and then-"  
"I didn't know that made me famous," he murmured.  
"Everyone knows who you are, master Link."  
"It's 'Link.'"  
"Yes, master Link. I know."  
"No, no, just call me 'Link.'" The girl gasped.  
"Why, no one famous like you has ever wished for me to call them by name as an equal. You are so much more respectful than I."  
"It's ok."  
"Well, I hate ter disturb such a quaint bit of a gatherin', but this 'ere kid seems ter have gotten 'imself inter a heap o' trouble downtown," the large man interrupted. "There's a load o' them soldiers waitin' at the door, an' I don't want any trouble at my inn, so I suggest yuh go quietly and don't make a fuss."  
"Go?" asked Link, confused.  
"They come ter pick yuh up, kid. Seems yuh caused quite a ruckus." Finally, Link stood, a look of total disbelief on his face.  
"I didn't do anything like that! I'm telling you, I was in a battlefield, fighting off the enemy, and a flash of light exploded and killed everyone except me."  
"Sounds believable ter me," the man said sarcastically.  
"I'm telling the truth!"  
"Sure, kid, an' I'm the King o' Hyrule!" He erupted in laughter. His sarcasm sparked Link's anger, which often resulted in a brawl he almost never completed. However, his nerves were already peaked, and this last cynical comment threw him over. He balled his fist and drew his arm back ready to leap at the man's face. Just before his knuckles plowed into the man's large nose, his arm froze in midair, seized by a soldier who had found his way to the private rooms of the inn. Link stared, eyes wide in terror, at the tall soldier who had suddenly appeared from nowhere.  
"Have you got a problem with the owner of this inn, kid?" he asked. Link shook his head. "Good. Then I suggest you come with us." Just as he said that, three more guards poured into the room, ready to take on anyone in their way. Reluctantly, Link calmed himself and walked with the soldiers, catching the eye of the inn-owner's daughter as the soldiers led him out.  
Four horses waited outside the inn, and each soldier mounted his own, the tall soldier taking Link onto his horse with him. They rode toward the castle, in which the boy was sure he'd be sleeping for the night, surrounded by bars, bricks, and chains. Indeed, he was correct, though not in such a way he had expected. The castle didn't seem at all familiar to him, not the marketplace, not the inner castle grounds, nothing. True, everything looked the same, but something didn't seem right to Link. 


End file.
